GKIDS Preps 4K Home Releases for Mamoru Hosoda’s Enchanting Animated Films

Academy Award-winning distributor GKIDS announced today that beginning this year, it will issue in partnership with Shout! Studios all-new 4K UHD releases of award-winning director Mamoru Hosoda’s early film catalog.

The first titles in the series to receive a reissue are the Oscar-nominated director’s seminal 2009 feature Summer Wars, and critically lauded 2012 hit Wolf Children. The new home entertainment releases will be presented with brand new artwork in a 4K UHD SteelBook version, a standard Blu-ray issue and on digital download-to-own platforms.

New issues for Summer Wars will be released on April 1 (pre-order here) and Wolf Children on August 5 (pre-order here).

Last year, GKIDS announced it had acquired the North American distribution rights to Hosoda’s catalog of films. GKIDS previously released the Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated Mirai (2018) and the critically acclaimed Belle (2021), which became Hosoda’s highest grossing film to date in North America. The director’s six features have all been nominated for, and five have been awarded, the Japan Academy Prize for “Animation of the Year.” Hosoda remains the only Japanese director outside of the famed Studio Ghibli to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.

Learn more at HosodaCollection.com.

Summer Wars

Kenji is a shy, part-time moderator for OZ, the virtual reality world that powers everyday life, until pretty and popular Natsuki recruits him to be her fake boyfriend. While posing as an affluent suitor to Natsuki’s family, Kenji finds that a rogue AI program has stolen his online identity, and Kenji is accused of hacking OZ and causing real-world catastrophes. As the destruction in OZ throws Natsuki’s family into disarray, Kenji must unite his newfound connections to overcome an impending cyber apocalypse.

Bonus Features

• Interviews with the Original Cast
  • Ryunosuke Kamiki (Kenji Koiso)
  • Nanami Sakuraba (Natsuki Shinohara)
  • Mitsuki Tanimura (Kazuma Ikezawa)
  • Ayumu Saito (Wabisuke Jinnouchi)
  • Sumiko Fuji (Sakae Jinnouchi)
• Interview with Mamoru Hosoda
• Teasers & Trailers

Wolf Children

College student Hana falls in love with a “wolf man” and together they have two half-human, half-wolf children, Ame and Yuki. The young family’s happy but humble life comes to an abrupt end when the father is tragically killed during a hunt. After struggling to raise her children in the busy city, Hana boldly decides to move to a dilapidated house in the countryside, in hopes that her children may one day decide their own path to happiness — whether “human” or “wolf.”